Thorny Monstrocorn

A solitary, armored beast with few threats and a long lifespan, the thorny monstrocorn is a hothouse thorngrazer going down an opposite evolutionary path to those we've so far seen.

Nimicorn thorngrazers were the largest surviving land animal at the end of the ice age, and they inherited a world for the taking. Now some thorngrazers are well on their way to becoming somewhat less loathsome, almost elegant animal as they evolve brightly-colored head casques and reduce most of their tooth-horns. Living in herds, they now develop more complex social behaviors. Soon they will be wholly unrecognizable for what they once were. 

The monstrocorns, however, are anything but elegant. Low-slung, hunch-backed, plodding beasts, these other nimicorn descendants have responded to the new green world that they've been given by growing bigger; they have grown by a third to over 1,200 lbs  and are now too heavy to run from enemies. Instead they lurch along, pulling their hind leg up inchworm-like, and defend themselves with a vicious array of horns, spikes, quills, and toothy nodules below the skin. Their more rapid increase in size has gone hand in hand with the loss of most of their shaggy ice-age fur coats, which have only been modestly thinned out in smaller species, to the point that monstrocorns are almost bald. Without fur to soften their literal hard edges, they show off all of the cuts, scars and lumps thorngrazers accumulate through their rough, combative lives as they are bitten by predators, gored by conspecifics, and chewed on constantly by countless sorts of parasites that range from flies to birds as large as crows. Losing their hair makes the monstrocorns more vulnerable to some pests, but removes places for the smaller ones to hide and prevents overheating in the humid, stifling weather of the soglands. To help keep flies at bay, monstrocorns spend much time rolling in mud -  a natural skin protection.

Monstrocorns are only loosely social and have abandoned the big groups of other nimicorns, for their size and strong defenses mean they have few significant predators as adults, and do a good job of protecting their single calves from predators as well. Their face bears two immense upward-projected tusks up to six feet tall and several smaller horns; paired tusks on the pointed, shovel-like lower jaw are used mainly to dig up the roots and tubers of sogland grasses, which are more nutritious than the watery leaves, but can also be used to crush opponents into the ground. Large quills on the monstrocorn's back are an innovation unique to them, formed from a thin mineralized core and a keratin covering, they too are ultimately derived from teeth like the rest of the animals' spikes and tusks. Flexible enough length-wise to fold down flat when the animal rests without breaking, they protect against even the strongest flying hunters, and make it impossible for even sawjaws to get a bite of their back side when erected, the sharp points breaking off inside the jaws of animals that try their luck, likely to fatal outcome. An armor-plating of osteoderm-like teeth beneath the skin also protects from these enemies, with large external teeth sheltering the throat. The only way to kill an adult monstrocorn is to flip it entirely upon its back and gut out the belly, something that only the largest sawjaw packs might accomplish, and only with very infirm individuals. Their strong defenses and small social groups (which means pathogens spread much less virulently between them) means that most monstrocorns live much longer than many other thorngrazers, sometimes more than thirty years. Though they end up battle-scared and bruised, and are as bothered by pests as any other thorngrazer, their great size means they can heal quickly from superficial injuries that might be fatal to smaller animals, and they go on to live another day. Few animals, anywhere, are more resilient.